American healthcare: Business as usual
I’m going to file this under the category of Saturn concluding its travel through Virgo, the sign of health and the fragile ecosystem that makes up the body/mind/spirit system of the human being. Saturn forces us to face reality – it’s the cosmic wake-up call.
Last year during the debate on health care, one of the GOP talking point was that the American healthcare system is the “best in the world.” In fact, Richard Shelby of Alabama said “[the healthcare bill] will be the first steps in destroying the best health care system the world has ever known.”
Unfortunately, talking points do not create reality, and Reuters reports that a new study from the Commonwealth Fund shows that the United States ranks last in quality of health care when compared to Britain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand. The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation whose mission statement aims to “promote a high performing health care system” in the United States. Its Board of Directors includes Medicare experts, physicians, hospital administrators, researchers, and executives at investment firms.
In 2007, health spending was $7,290 per person in the United States, more than double that of any other country in the survey.
Australians spent $3,357, Canadians $3,895, Germans $3,588, the Netherlands $3,837 and Britons spent $2,992 per capita on health in 2007. New Zealand spent the least at $2,454.
This is a big rise from the Fund’s last similar survey, in 2007, which found Americans spent $6,697 per capita on healthcare in 2005, or 16 percent of gross domestic product.
“We rank last on safety and do poorly on several dimensions of quality,” Schoen told reporters. “We do particularly poorly on going without care because of cost. And we also do surprisingly poorly on access to primary care and […]